Last Bus to Brooklyn

It’s the fun and easy-to-do economic story of the month: Hard economic times prove boon to low-price bus services. Granted, easier to do for reporters in the Boston to Washington corridor than, say, South Dakota, but it IS a good story and since one of them features the NAM’s legal ally Victor Schwartz…

June 13 (Bloomberg) — Washington lawyer Victor Schwartz bills his clients, which include firms such as New York-based Morgan Stanley, $700 an hour for his services. So in these tough economic times, he tries to present them with a smaller transportation bill when he comes up to see them.

“It’s $21 for the bus, versus $300 for the plane,” says Schwartz, 68, a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP. “They get the same lawyer, the suit is pressed just as well, and I’m ready to roll.”

People who take Amtrak or prefer flying might think one cheapo coach is the same as the next, but these are the same undiscriminating individuals who think a Bud Light is interchangeable with a Busch Light. Not only are these train or plane types spending more money than is strictly necessary—a sure sign of moral inferiority—but they have failed to learn the supremely useful, difficult-to-master art of distinguishing among the baser things in life. Herewith, a snob’s guide to bus travel.